Day 2 day began unusually early for the players who had bought the hospitality package. They had to gather near Burger King at 8:50 A.M. on the Spanish side of the border to take a bus ride to the sea. Whale and dolphin watching boat tour was going to be the extra-poker fun for the day.

Sleepy John

Beautiful Morning

Andro Loos, the young manager of the Cash Game Festival, later commented that he had seen a minibus-size whale sleeping in the waves. Of course, he would not know if it was sleeping or not – marine biology is not his field of interest. The tour guide had told him that it was asleep. Anyway, the whale was woken up by the tour boat. It disappeared for a while, suddenly emerging and waving its tail goodbye before leaving the pokeristas’ boat. Whether the whale had had an early wakeup call or it had overslept, remains to be unknown.

The Sleepy Whale

Boat Tour

Day 2 was great in terms of poker. The casino’s record of six cash game tables during big tournaments has been tied now by the Cash Game Festival. We except to beat the casino’s record over the weekend. The stars over the rock of Gibraltar seem to be aligned for the Cash Game Festival. Goody!

No-limit hold’em was mostly played on day 2. However, to nobody’s surprise, the festival’s regulars fired up a Sviten Special table. Janar Kokk, Elora Kask from London, Peter La Terra from Sweden, Veli-Matti Puumala and Sampsa “Sampson” Nyysti from Finalnd were the ones to get the game going.

Finally, we also got some ladies around the poker tables. Elora Kask, a London-based Estonian, was not given much choice by her husband but to sit down and play Sviten Special. John Scanlon, the head of poker at Aspers in London, had brought his wife to the festival. She was excitedly playing till the early hours of day 3. BetsafeAmbassador, lovely Monika Zukowicz tested the waters with Sviten as well before returning to no-limit hold’em which is her forte.

Monika Zukowicz

On another note, the Cash Game Festival is slowly but surely getting known by the Norwegian players. Namely Kjetil Flåten from Norskpoker.com arrived in Gibraltar. He is covering events for the site, plays poker and is the vice president of the Norwegian Poker Federation. Exciting!

We chatted with Kjetil about poker in Norway. Apparently, the game is very popular there. Currently, Norway is having the world’s largest national championships. Which is controversial because gambling for money has been illegal there since 1907, and the state monopoly for gambling is in place. Good news is that the Norwegian Poker Federation finally got the State to change the gambling laws. So now, in the national championships, it is possible to play with money. However, maximum loss amount for each player is about 1000 euros.

Cash games are still not allowed at all in Norway. Only friendly home games are allowed – maximum 10 persons, and they have to know each other. Basically, these 10 players have to be friends, according to Kjetil. So naturally, playing poker is a very social activity in Norway. Sounds like Norwegian players would perfectly fit in with Cash Game Festival family who does not only love cash games but thoroughly enjoys the social aspect of Cash Game Festival live events all across Europe.

Some underground poker clubs do exist in Norway but they are illegal. However, as Kejtil put it, the police do not interfere with their activities if they behave.

Poker

Apparently, for good cash games, Norwegians fly out to Sweden or London. So now we need a master plan on how to get the Norwegians to fly out for when the Cash Game Festival is in London again. Or in Dublin. Apparently, the flights to London from Norway are ¼ the price of the flight tickets to Stocholm. What is holding you back, our Norwegian poker friends? We would like to give you a big hug and then play some good poker with you! Sviten Special WILL be played at every festival!

The later TwitchTV table of the day 2 already featured a Norwegian player Kunt Rysstad in seat #3. He slayed the TV table and was the biggest winner of day 2 TV tables.

Knut Rysstad from Norway

Day 2 carried on till the early hours of day 3. The action was on. At around 2 A.M., most players gathered around the roulettetable to try their luck with the play money to win a free pass to Cash Game Festival Malta stop in July. Casino Sunborn was filled with poker buzz and friendly chatting. Occasionally, some excited laughter was heard from the poker tables. Drinks were being served. The buzz to die for, for sure. Win or lose, poker is poker. But poker in good company makes up a great holiday.

Happy People

On day 3, Cash Game Festival Team and our proud Partners will welcome player to a dinner to remember in Sunborn Hotel. The plan is to drink, eat and enjoy the sunset on top of the boat in Gibraltar. What an evening ahead!